In winter, architectural design and its hard shapes, of stone, or concrete, are the things that capture one’s eye. Evergreens surround them with the only color of winter. But when everything else is dead or sleeping, it is those hard shapes that define the design....
Look about you. Winter gives us information in unexpected ways. For instance, you can tell the temperature outside just by looking at the rhododendrons. At 32 degrees, they curl up. About like a cigar. If they curl even more tightly, like a cigarette, it’s about 20...
The Holiday Season is a special time to think, to share, to remember. It's a family and friends time. It's a time to talk to each other, face to face, instead of texting and tweeting, and not being with another warm, live body. Holidays are one of the few times where...
December 21 is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. And it is why we need the twinkling lights of Christmas. The winter solstice brings depressing darkness to the northern hemisphere, and the farther north you go, the shorter the days become. Boston, at...
"Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming all alone. All her lovely companions have faded fast and gone." So goes the romantic, nostalgic song from the 1920's. It's still true each year as we watch the damp, dark, cold winter approach. This year we had snowflakes on...
Today I picked a pint of lovely raspberries. My fall crop. They never fail to fruit. Overhead my dogwood turned maroon. A friend brought a bag of her extra tomatoes. Every serious backyard gardener has too many squash and big cucumbers, which are given to neighbors....
Are your kids showing an interest in climbing? Anyone who has ever taken up a hobby or pastime knows that the key to mastery is putting in the hours, so some families with little climbers decided to forgo the membership to the rock climbing gym and create a climbing...
Spartan-style tiny homes are popping up everywhere across the country. Call it what you will: a shift towards sustainable living; a natural response to a recessed economy; a necessary move by a generation burdened by enormous debt. Whatever it is, the movement is...
The May garden is so, so beautiful. Breath taking. Azaleas full, flowering trees coming and going, rhododendrons beginning, irises, spring flowers, wild flowers. Small, bright green leaves sprouting on the shade trees. Each day something new comes out to delight the...
Bambi is not your friend, and this column is no joke. 1. What wild animal kills the most people? Deer. Because of automobile accidents. 2. What wild animal spreads most disease to people? Deer. Lyme Disease and others. 3. If you find a tick attached to you, especially...
